One in every ten New York residents does not have a bank account. Street homelessness is on the rise. Despite this, there seems to be a new bank branch on every corner. Why? The answer may not surprise you.

The Wall Street Journal's Anne Kadet today provides the technical business justification for the banks of the world's ongoing project to open a branch on every single block in New York City: because people want to deposit a lot of money in them. Retail bank branches in NYC hold many times the national average of deposits, and besides, customers tell banks in surveys that they want more branches, closer to them, all the time. Banks find that when they build more branches, they attract more money, and have more satisfied customers, and so they keep building branches.

That is the standard business reason. But then there is the real reason: douchebags.

At TD's East Village branch opening, I asked several locals what they thought of the glowing green bank opening on the site of the legendary dive bar. No one seemed the slightest bit peeved. "It shows the area is up and coming," said Clayton Schmidt, a media planner dressed in a purple plaid shirt. "Although I'm a Chase guy. I totally want more Chase banks."